Exacting
by ncfan
Summary: -Kakashi, Gai- There's one way Kakashi will always lose to Gai.


**Characters**: Kakashi, Gai**  
>Summary<strong>: There's one way in which Kakashi will always lose to Gai.**  
>Pairings<strong>: None**  
>Author's Note<strong>: Gai strikes me as the sort to have had several successful genin squads. He just seems so confident in his teaching.**  
>Disclaimer<strong>: I don't own Star Wars.

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><p><em>i.<em>

"Hello, Kakashi!" Kakashi, who had been taking a light nap on a tree branch, winces when he hears that exceptionally loud, exceptionally exuberant voice. Well, _of course_ Gai would think he needs to shout to wake him up. In reality, Kakashi's such a light sleeper that stepping on a twig beneath the tree would have been enough.

Kakashi opens the eye not covered by his hitai-ate. "Hello, Gai."

Below, Gai is grinning exuberantly and there are three children with him. _Ah, Gai's first genin cell_, Kakashi realizes, and he plasters a wide, mostly unseen smile on his face for the sake of the kids. _I wonder how long it will take for them to go nuts._

"So these are your new genin, Gai?"

Gai nods vigorously and pumps his fist in the air. "Yes! This—" he ushers the dark-haired, pale-skinned (an Uchiha, most likely) boy forward "—is the valiant Uchiha Hisato."

_I knew it_.

"This—" Now Gai, albeit gently, ruffles the hair of the brown-haired boy "—is the diligent Kato Daisuke." Daisuke nods nervously up to him; Kakashi's reputation precedes him.

"And this—" Now, the girl with short brown hair steps forward "—is the lovely Inoue Asuka."

"Hello," Asuka murmurs, smiling slightly.

"Hi guys," Kakashi greets them mildly, waving before whipping a copy of _Icha Icha_ out of his back pocket and burying his nose in it.

"And this…" Gai pauses dramatically and the genin look up at their new sensei like they're seriously rethinking this arrangement "…is my eternal rival… Hatake Kakashi!"

He just stands in his "Nice guy" pose for several seconds before Asuka steps forward and tugs on his flak jacket. "Gai-sensei?"

"Yes, my lovely lotus blossom?"

"You said Kakashi-sensei had new genin too. Where are they?"

Gai's eyes snap back to Kakashi. "That is indeed correct, Asuka. Where are your new genin, Kakashi? I trust you will not neglect their training by deserting them on your first day as an official jonin sensei."

Kakashi's voice is mild but flat. "I failed them."

"WHAT?" Gai sounds absolutely scandalized. "Kakashi, why on Earth would you do such a thing to your genin? They were skilled enough to graduate from the Academy!"

_Three faces, two boys and a girl, and Kakashi recognizes the make-up. Mild eyes, an incessant voice and a quiet contempt._

_Not these three._

Kakashi shrugs. "They failed my bell test. Their skills and mentalities were insufficient for them to become genin. They can try again next year with a different jonin."

Gai nods, plainly disapproving but deciding not to dwell on what he sees as Kakashi's wrongdoing. "True. At any rate, I have come to this training ground to gauge the abilities of my own genin. Unless a kunai or shuriken goes astray I can promise that we shall not disturb you. Feel free to offer advice; I value the opinion of any experienced shinobi in this matter."

"Sure, thanks." Kakashi digs his nose deeper into _Icha Icha_.

_There's no chance I'll__ be interrupting you._

_ii._

Kakashi yawns as he starts to make his way towards the Hokage's office. The Hokage has another mission for him and for the life of him Kakashi does not understand why he has to get up so early in order to take the mission.

Ah, well. At least the village is still quiet and peaceful this early in the morning. The sun's barely up over the horizon and the shops are just starting to open.

"GOOD… MORNING… KAKASHI!"

_Well, so much for the peace and quiet._

The man known as the Copy nin turns round and Gai is tearing up the high street towards him, three bobbing heads close behind. Theses new genin have a great deal of stamina, Kakashi has to admit; he doesn't know too many genin who can even remotely keep up with Gai when he's running.

"Your new genin, I take it?"

"Precisely!"

Kakashi knows their names and doesn't really listen while Gai makes the traditional introductions. There are two girls and a boy on Gai's team this year; the Academy had more female students than usual this year. Hashimoto Chizuru, a girl who shows promise in taijutsu. Fujita Hiroyuki, a genjutsu user. And Kichida Kumiko, a… generalist. _Oh, boy._ Generalists are always the most dangerous.

Gai's voice gets his attention. "And your new genin, Kakashi?"

"Failed."

"Again?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"For the same reason as last time." _All the same reasons._

_iii._

This time, Kakashi doesn't give Gai time to introduce his genin His visible eye crinkles upwards. "Let me guess. Rock Lee—" he points to the boy with eyebrows identical to Gai's.

Lee salutes, face comically grave. "Yes sir!"

Kakashi moves on to the next. "Hyuuga Neji, I presume?"

Neji nods silently.

"And Tenten? I'm sorry; I never caught your surname."

The girl with the steady gaze smiles. "Yes. And that's alright; I don't have a surname."

Kakashi's smiles shifts to Gai. "Well Gai, this batch seems ready for anything. I'm sure you must be proud."

Gai nods vigorously. "Undoubtedly. The genius of hard work Lee, the prodigy Neji and the prodigious weapons user Tenten will make fine shinobi. Any jonin would be proud to have them as their genin." Lee grins, Neji snorts and Tenten smiles as if she isn't used to being praised like this.

_At least he gives them confidence._

"Need I ask where your genin are, Kakashi?"

Kakashi's smile fades, even if it still exists as a crinkled eye and the shadow of a smile behind a mask. "Back at the Academy, of course."

The look Gai gives his genin is sage. "You see, my eternal rival Hatake Kakashi possesses the most exacting standards for genin of any jonin in Konoha."

"I'll say," Tenten is heard to mutter to Neji. "Every Academy student I know is terrified of ending up with this guy as a sensei."

Gai's grin is perfectly scintillating as focuses his gaze on Kakashi. "This is not a healthy habit to maintain, my friend. I simply can not believe that all of the genin you have thus far failed can really be so substandard as you make them out to be."

Kakashi waves a hand in the air lazily as he walks away. "Ah, well. You know me. Only the best."

—_As ever, the faces were too familiar_.—

_iv._

"As you can imagine, Kakashi, I was elated when I heard that you had decided to pass the genin you were assigned this year." There's a question in that voice, and Kakashi reflects that this really isn't like Gai. Gai isn't one of those men that does a whole lot of deep thinking or a lot of looking underneath the underneath.

Then again, maybe Kakashi doesn't know Gai as well as he thought.

"I was a bit surprised myself," Kakashi admits readily. "But they're up to standard, for once."

_I was _really_ surprised, considering this lot are more familiar than all the others put together, and for all the wrong reasons._

"Yes…" Gai's eyes narrow; never a good sign, as Kakashi has learned. "Kakashi…" Gai hesitates "…I notice you haven't been paying as much attention to you cell's training. Not even to young Uchiha Sasuke—the impression I got was that he was the one you were focusing on." Gai doesn't accuse Kakashi of favoritism; Gai's aware enough of the fact that he's devoted the majority of his time to Lee to know better. Gai's not a hypocrite.

"Yes… Well… I…" Kakashi doesn't bother stringing together a coherent sentence; he can't dredge up the proper energy to do so.

Thick eyebrows scrunch together. "Kakashi… I understand if your genin remind you of your own original cell, but really, this can't go on. You can't punish Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke for…"

Though Gai doesn't notice (he's too far into a monologue) Kakashi has whipped out _Icha Icha_ and starts to read. Gai might as well be mute.

_v._

Kakashi sighs as he reads _Icha Icha_ in a tree. Usually, the thought of having one of these books to pass the hours would be enough to make Kakashi ecstatic (and really, they only get better with each reading), but not today.

Probably because the reading of glorified porn is the _only_ thing he has to do these days, when not on missions.

Four months since Naruto went on a training mission with Jiraiya.

Four months since Sakura became Tsunade's apprentice in medical ninjutsu.

Four months since Sasuke went off to God knows where, doing God knows what—

Wait. Kakashi knows _exactly_ where Sasuke has gone, and he knows _exactly_ what Sasuke is doing. If anything that makes it even worse, that Sasuke has gone beyond recall just like the others, except Kakashi can't see him in the darkness.

_Obito, Rin and me, all over again. Our dark reflections. Our twisted shadows__. Everything through a glass darkly. How we could have ended up, if things had been different._

Kakashi hears familiar strains over the chirping of birds and the incessant clamor of his own thoughts.

And he watches, silent to the world, as Gai trains his genin, getting them ready for the next mission, the next Exam, the next everything.

_Cut off, and we're all scattered, and they're not my students anymore._

_They never were, really._


End file.
